Tigers should be worried about notable wrinkle concerning first-round draft pick

It is safe to say that the Detroit Tigers' early picks in the 2025 MLB Draft were pretty polarizing. While talented players who certainly fit the mold of what the Tigers' prioritize in the draft, neither first-round pick Jordan Yost nor second round pick Michael Oliveto were ranked by experts particularly close to where they were selected.

That said, expert rankings aren't everything and there is a lot to like with Yost. He is incredibly good for his age at making contact and commanding the strike zone, is a at least plus runner, and should be able to stick at shortstop. In a vacuum, which is a hell of a player to get at No. 24 overall.

There is one potential problem, though. According to some reports, Yost was originally planning on attending the University of Florida to play with his brother, Hayden, and that could still happen.

Tigers shouldn't worry about Jordan Yost's signability ... yet

There was a time when a commitment to a big-time sports school like Florida would be a huge problem. It wasn't that long ago that college commitments were nearly ironclad, and unless a high school kid was getting top-10 money, picking them in the top two rounds was a massive risk that teams were often very hesitant to even entertain.

However, times are a bit different now. One, a lot of high school players don't want to risk getting to college and hurting their own value by underperforming or getting hurt. The other change is that while agents certainly use college commitments as leverage, teams just don't pick players early in the draft unless they have a firm assurance that they will sign ... because if the player doesn't sign, the team just loses the draft bonus pool money from that slot which would be a disaster.

Could Yost not sign and end up in college? Sure, it could happen, and if it does it will certainly cause the Tigers to go scorched earth on Yost's advisor and might cost some people in the front office their jobs. However, Detroit generally doesn't make those sorts of mistakes. Given how important the extra bonus pool money is going to be to their strategy, Tigers fans shouldn't get too panicked just yet.

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